We have friends who recently moved from Bridgeport, CT to Charleston, West Virginia (home of annual vehicle inspections). They are from India, and are just starting out in this country (here legally) after his graduation from a Master's program. They are extremely hard working (he delivered pizzas 50 hours a week while attending grad school in biomedical engineering), and have a young son. Their car recently died and I'd like to try to help them to get another one.

My friend has a '99 Subaru Outback that he's willing to donate to them. It has 180k or so (odometer doesn't work all the time) with the following issues:

CEL for an O2 sensor (I was going to try to replace the O2 sensor to fix this)

Minor rust around rear wheel wells

Brake light is on (unsure of cause, I'm going to investigate)

Odometer/Speedometer only works sporadically - There seems to be an exception in the inspection where this is OK as long as the vehicle is more than 10 years old

I've downloaded the official inspection manual and it's very thorough. Does anyone who lives in WV (or did in the past) have any insights into just how intense the inspection process is? I know it will be more difficult being that the vehicle will be coming from out of state (CT), and they don't have an established history with the garage that will be inspecting the car.

Any tips, etc? They're located in Charleston, West Virginia.

My initial thoughts were to go through the car with the inspection in mind and see if it's feasible to get it into shape where it can pass inspection. I'm trying to figure out the 80/20 of what's in the official inspection manual vs. what's actually important.

From my experience growing up in WV, the thoroughness of the inspection varies a lot place to place and depending on the person. I've heard stories of people just getting the sticker without ever bringing their truck in to be inspected (that guy drove an old beater truck with a severely cracked windshield for years) and I've also been failed because my window regulator was broken and I couldn't roll my window up. I'm guessing new to the country would in general equate to not being a good ole' boy and not getting any breaks on the inspection.

WildScotsRacing wrote:
I'm surprised the speedometer issue doesn't have a stored CEL code for a bad VSS. New VSS might be the easy button for that one.

It could very well have a stored code for that, I'm just going off of what my friend said in terms of codes. He said the brake warning light is on, so a VSS issue could theoretically cause odometer and ABS issues, which I think could throw a brake light. I'm going to try to swap cars with my friend for a few days this week to give it a thorough once-over, but I'm not very familiar with Subarus.

T.J. wrote:
From my experience growing up in WV, the thoroughness of the inspection varies a lot place to place and depending on the person. I've heard stories of people just getting the sticker without ever bringing their truck in to be inspected (that guy drove an old beater truck with a severely cracked windshield for years) and I've also been failed because my window regulator was broken and I couldn't roll my window up. I'm guessing new to the country would in general equate to not being a good ole' boy and not getting any breaks on the inspection.

Thanks, that's the kind of feedback I was looking for. I would try to be there for the inspection. I'm not a good 'ol boy, but my English is good and I understand more about cars than my friends.

Yes it varies. It's a $12 sticker, $1 for the state and $11 for tech, how thorough do you think it is when that same tech could be turning $50+ for that same hr of work?

Biggest issues is having upto date registration and insurance information in hand on paper and not showing up at lunch or quitting time and expecting it done in 15 minutes, typical wv-er. After that, make sure the brakes are newish, tires have tread depth greater than 5/32", there is no steering it suspension play, and all the lights work. Those are all fails and you'll be back to pay again either to the shop for repairs and sticker or done at home for them to inspect it again.

But if WV is like PA (inspections are all done by private garages with a license), then I kinda agree with edizzle89. I've been going to the same shop for PA inspections for over 20 years. While I've never tried to get them to pass a woefully noncompliant car (closest was my E30, which failed emissions miserably), they will let a lot of other stuff slide as they know I do a lot of work on my own cars.

I live in Charleston and it does vary. Your best bet is to find a dumpy gas station out of town. I also like to... avoid Imperial entanglements... and used a lawn mower repair place until they got busted. There was a place in Hometown that would basically give you the sticker. The closest I've found to that kind of service is a little place right on the road between Hurricane and Teays Valley. I don't remember the name, but it's a brown/tan stone building that sells tires. Also, you have 90 days to get the car inspected after the sticker expires.

SC dropped inspections years ago because it was an absolute joke. But, a trooper can now give you a big, big ticket for operating a hazardous vehicle (ie bald tires).

My daughter lives in the same area as Apis millifera. Her husband in the military, so here can is still licensed in SC. That saves her a bunch. I am also surprised to see WV has inspections based on what I have seen while visiting her. Thankfully, she will be leaving later this year.

NGTD wrote:
When a Subaru has that much 1/4 panel rust, the rear strut towers are normally ready to fall out of them. Have you looked up there real carefully?

I'll check that out tonight - thanks for the feedback! I know nothing of Suby's other than they had a ton of head gasket issues, so the specific rust info is a big help!

In some of the chassis, there is a ledge up there that will hold dirt and moisture. Get a light up in there and use your hand or a small hammer to check. If it's bad then don't spend a penny on it. It's scrap.

Once the HG's are fixed properly they quite often are not a problem again. I had a 97 Outback with the EJ25D that had 412k kms on it and it was fine.

NGTD wrote:
When a Subaru has that much 1/4 panel rust, the rear strut towers are normally ready to fall out of them. Have you looked up there real carefully?

You were 100% right. I checked the rear strut towers and both had significant rust, especially on the side just behind the wheel well. In addition, the subframe on the driver's side rear also had some rust that went beyond surface rust.

Thanks for your help in ruling this one out as a candidate for my other friend! Without your feedback, I would have invested some time and money into something that wasn't worth it!

Weird i still have friends in hagerstown MD and most of them tag and title there cars with a west virginia address to avoid marylands inspections. Is it like ohio wear inspections are only required in certain countys? I know my friends camaro is tagged with his martinsburg address and was never inspected.

dropstep wrote:
Weird i still have friends in hagerstown MD and most of them tag and title there cars with a west virginia address to avoid marylands inspections.

MD only has a safety inspection when the vehicle changes owners and is re-titled. Emmissions Inspections are sniffer on the rollers for 1977 to 1995 and OBDII from 1996 to present and are every 2 years.